When the motherfuck do you get a fortitude field skill? It's killing me, passing all these things that I can't use or open or swim through cuz NO ONE HAS FORTITUDE!!!

Edit: So I found out I'll get it pretty soon. Sorry for the rant. Game rocks!

I've been really feeling it as well. I hate the fact that they introduce branching quests with a skill check that required two skills that I didn't have at all.

At least I've almost obtained another Rare Blade, so that Nia can have a full set at last (of course, I'm probably going to need to have the Core Crystal recharge first).

I've got about 11 or 12 rare blades now. Most of them through common crystals believe it or not. Rare blades are actually pretty aggrivating with their special requirements for leveling up and such....not all of them but a few are pushing my buttons to say the least. What annoys me most is how FUCKING RANDOM the blade is that you'll get. Rex keeps getting tanks and healers, while Nia gets healers and tanks as well. Sucks that all the ring blades are attached to beasts too...they look stupid.

I ended up spending an Override to swap the Catgirl Blade I pulled on Nia to the third Blade user since I gave Nia the Beast Core Crystal earlier (which is also Earth Elemental). Amusingly, I got that Catgirl Blade right after completing the last 2nd rank Merc Mission that uses her exclusive skill (whoops). I also now have Vess and a Dark elemental Katana Rare Blade, the latter was pulled by my third Blade user to solidify my diversity (I need only Ice now), while Vess went to Nia to replace the Catgirl.

They're fixing the map (also making Tiger! Tiger! easier; although I feel that its easy enough as is; I'd complain about gains, but then I went and made a Stage 2 run that ended up netting me both a Rare Core Crystal and over 2000 Ether Crystals, which is kinda nuts).

I think I like X-2 for the most part. I've played it twice, so I'm fairly happy with saying it has the best combat in the series and a really cool and unique job mechanic.

The After Years is...unnecessary, but I'm glad you liked it! FFIV falls just outside of my top 5, so maybe that's why I'm not so keen on The After Years. I totally get your criticisms of IV though, which is why, after playing nearly every other title, it slipped out of that ranking but I think it has its memorable bits. It's not aged particularly well either, compared to the other SNES contemporaries. Each to their own, and that's why listener comments are always welcome :D Thanks as always Arvis!

FFIV: good characters and GREAT music, coupled with a smooth battle system and a "just ok" plot, all stuffed into an on-rails experience with little exploration, even less difficulty/strategy/planning, and no customization or party-building at all. Everything is decided for the player and every playthrough is identical.

FFIV The After Years: good characters and great music, coupled with a smooth battle system and a MUCH more intelligent plot and handling of characters, tons of party building and potential for customization, as well as just the right amount difficulty to keep you playing with the myriad of cool characters you can use. Tons of replay potential.

But have to say: Final Fantasy X-2 is one of my Top 5 FFs. It sounds like some of the hosts need to go back to that one. Amazing combat, superlative job system, great soundtrack and visuals, and a plot that actually does get pretty good toward the back half.

You guys were also pretty unfair toward The After Years which, from an objective standpoint, was easily superior to IV as an RPG. Come at me.

Hah! The last movie I watched in an actual movie theater was Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, but I did see When Marnie was There in one of those small arthouse cinema things. Usually I just watch what my friends bring over (though I do have a decent collection of animated movies on dvd and blu-ray).

I had some time to read more Lord of the Rings. I'm in the middle of the chapter "Treebeard" in The Two Towers. I must say, this and the preceding chapter "The Uruk-Hai" have been two of my favorites because they're Merry and Pippin chapters. Merry and Pippin actually have personalities, unlike everyone else (particularly the folks in the Fellowship) who are all just boring slabs of exposition. Like, when Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli talk, I have trouble telling who's who since none of them have distinctive personalities and have all just been interchangeable mouthpieces for exposition. Aside from Merry and Pippin, only Treebeard has shown a personality. Tolkien's worldbuilding is incredible, but his characters leave much to be desired.

One thing is bugging me from the Uruk-Hai chapter, though. When Grishnakh

frisks Merry and Pippin for the McGuffin in order to stage a mutiny against Ugluk, Pippin teases him by saying, "Gollum, gollum" and referring to the ring as "my precious." HOW?!?!?!?! There is NO WAY that Pippin had any prior knowledge of Gollum to even know to do that. And no amount of logic-leaping rigmarole is making this make sense to me.